Imagine Dragons riding a huge wave of popularity

Friday

During the first week of September 2012, the Las Vegas-based pop-rock band was playing a free outdoor show with Awolnation at the Piazza At Schmidt’s in Philadelphia.

A storm was on the horizon and a naked man danced in the audience to future hits.

“I remember that show vividly,” vocalist Dan Reynolds says while calling from Chicago. “It was so powerful. When we hit the stage, it looked like there was going to be this awful downpour. The skies were dark and you could feel tension in the air. But it didn’t rain and it was one of my favorite performances we ever did. The crowd was amazing.”

Now, Imagine Dragons returns to the city Saturday after making its Atlantic City debut Friday. The Philly show will be outdoors, but it will be far from free.

And there will be considerable security since Imagine Dragons will be one of the featured players at the Made in America Festival on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, so dancers without clothes will not be welcome.

The group, which also includes guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Ben Platzman, has gone from under the radar to the stratosphere in less than a year.

“Radioactive” is one of the biggest pop-rock hits of the last dozen months. The catchy cut reached the top spot of Billboard’s Alternative Songs and Rock Songs charts, and has gone triple-platinum in America.

“That song means so much to us,” Reynolds says. “We went to another level with it. The fans just embraced it.”

“Night Visions,” the debut album from Imagine Dragons, is full of stylish, melancholy and reflective tracks. Few could have guessed the brooding tunes would connect with the masses.

“But you never know what’s going to happen when you release an album,” Reynolds says. “That’s the beauty of music — it’s so unpredictable.”

Reynolds is a soft-spoken, laid-back Mormon who is part of a family that has lived in Vegas for three generations.

“It’s a special place,” he says. “People don’t normally see that since they come in for a few days and usually get really drunk. Las Vegas is their party city and then there is how the people who live there look at it.

“I love the fake Elvises and craziness that is Vegas. It really is a special city. You have to live there to get it like I do. I’m proud to be a Las Vegan. It’s inspiring for a singer-songwriter. It’s a cool place for music. There are so many up-and-coming bands from there.”

It wasn’t long ago that Imagine Dragons was one of the up-and-coming.

“We did what other bands do in Las Vegas,” Reynolds says. “We played casinos. They let us pick the songs, which was cool. We did songs by U2 and Arcade Fire and had fun with it. We did four nights a week and they gave us $400 for it and that was enough money for rent and Taco Bell.”

That didn’t exactly impress his large family.

“Some of my brothers are doctors and lawyers,” Reynolds says. “My mom was not crazy about me being in a rock band.”

But it all worked out for him.

“I had to follow my heart,” he says. “I didn’t want to do something that I wasn’t passionate about. I found what I’m passionate about and it’s working out.”